Fast Food Lies II: Meals That Disappoint in Real Life

Written by Adriana Velez on CafeMom's blog, The Stir.

It's time for another round of Fast Food Lies! A while back we tried this with just a handful of fast food -- we compared the advertisement pictures with the real thing to see how they measure up for Fast Food Lies I. No one really expects their burgers to look exactly like they do in the commercial. But when you see those luscious pictures, get the craving, and then finally cave and buy the snack, wouldn't it be nice if they actually at least vaguely resembled what you've been fantasizing about?

That's what we think. Check out these eight fast food snacks to see which ads come close -- and which ones are just lyin' to you!

 

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Comments

[satyrday]

03:44 PM on 05/25/2012

And why on earth would Wendy's want to name a burger after the worst POTUS in at least the last century?

They need to fire the person who named the 'W'.

[satyrday]

03:41 PM on 05/25/2012

Sorry judges, I'm usually not a BK defender, but they currently do have the best chicken wrap (the honey mustard one).

[MusicLover42]

05:12 PM on 05/23/2012

Speaking of Wendy's. Went to get a burger and decided to try the new sweet baked potato and the mac n cheese. Baked potato was pretty good as far as a sweet potato goes. Cinnamon butter comes in a tiny container on the side and they give you a pat of butter you can see through. The mac n cheese is not what you see on tv. There is no golden creamy cheese sauce enrobing the elbow pasta. What you get is over cooked pasta with half melted coagulated clumpy cheese. In case anybody is thinking of trying the new sides, the price for each above was $2.50 each. Even the cashier said they are over priced.

[satyrday]

03:40 PM on 05/25/2012

Completely agree about the mac n cheese. It's the biggest rip off ever. That should get yanked pretty soon.

[TSRVT]

01:36 PM on 05/21/2012

Had a burger at Wendy's last week. It was better than the one I paid twice as much or at 5 Guys. Wendy's is actually pretty good these days.

[Harlee Cohn Mahmet]

06:35 AM on 05/21/2012

Have you ever seen the McD's regular hamburger? Teenie burger on an "island" of a bun. No fast food (to my knowledge) has EVER looked like the picture...neither NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, etc. Only the real, old fashioned, first-of-its-kind "TV Dinner"..greasy chicken, corn & watery mashed potatoes looked real and tasted great. (Compared to mom's cooking!) Now, wouldn't eat frozen dinners...too salty...or fast food...too salty, too greasy...of any kind (except for Pizza Hut pizza.) Looks like the picture, tastes great! What's your take on it?

[Sharon Kamp]

05:55 AM on 05/21/2012

Taco Bell's ads have always had more filling than you actually get and the sandwiches for sure do not look like the ads.... one place you didn't go that has fabulous burgers is Long John Silvers!!

[bdland4]

05:23 AM on 05/21/2012

On my way home from Harris Hospital at 10pm, I went to Wendys in liberty New York and ordered 2 large cheeseburgers to go, got home to enjoy and found all tomatoe ends and poor quality lettece and ect.... I would highly suggest not to got to Wendeys near closeing time nor order to go if your fussy.

[Jaelin227]

05:51 AM on 05/21/2012

If you go to McDonald's near closing time, they won't have any milkshakes.

[seelieme]

12:02 PM on 05/24/2012

same with Burger King. Friend who works there says that's because the late night crew want to clean the blender ahead of quitting time so the whole process shuts down.

[mikedavid1]

05:05 AM on 05/21/2012

The appearance difference is most noticable with frozen appetizers....the photo on the box is representative of the final product....once you have been duped, you will be very wary of all of them. Freshly prepared items aren't too bad....KFC chicken in a photo is farily close to the real thing. Fast food sandwiches, on the other hand, are the way they are depicted in the photo about half the time,

[Wake Up Call]

04:59 AM on 05/21/2012

People - what do you expect? You have a giant corporation trying to make as much profit as they can off of bargain basement food served up by minimum wage employees with no culinary education. Gee, it doesn't look like the photo produced by the billion dollar advertising budget? No kidding. They put their money in marketing, not quality. If you want quality, then either spend the money to eat at a good restaurant, or learn to cook.

[Brianna Cole]

04:55 AM on 05/21/2012

I am so glad I live in Japan where the food consistently looks as it is advertised....

[Altemeus]

04:33 AM on 05/21/2012

How can you make a review on a food no one will try? I swear, some people were not built to eat fast food, and those people should not turn around and rate fast food. Always the KFC Pot Pie haters, too. If the thing weren't so costly on the menu, I'd scarf that thing down daily, and probably die from overdosing on happiness. That or from heart failure. Can you say they aren't one in the same?

[moniquedelacroix]

04:11 AM on 05/21/2012

The KFC pot pie really isn't bad, and it does actually look a bit more like the ad copy than that did on the inside. That said, it had almost no chicken at all in it, though it did have carrots and potatoes. It also comes in an aluminum plate now (first time it didn't). So you can't microwave it without first splatting it into an appropriate vessel.

[diamondlotus]

03:35 AM on 05/21/2012

In the movie "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas, one of the funniest scenes was when he went to the fast food restaurant and ordered a hambuger that did not look anything like the picture on the menu when he actually got it, which he he complained about mightily. That and "smashing prices" at the liquor store were the most hilarious scenes in that movie. This article and these pictures reminded me of it.

[anitafeeney]

03:46 AM on 05/21/2012

i know what you mean i thought of that movie too

[Jaelin227]

05:54 AM on 05/21/2012

My ex husband made me watch that movie ... then he did everything Douglas did ... then it got worse. But I lived. Same thing will happen with all these foods. They all look great in the pictures, but looks can be very deceitful! But we all know that already.

[stvhndyman]

03:19 AM on 05/21/2012

Arbýs to me is the worst for deception from pictured to actual product. Their pictures show a bun with a nice amount of meat. What you get is a bun so flattened that NO meat is visible. I quit going thru the drive-thru, started going inside. When I got a sandwich that in no way resembled the picture, I went to the "manager" started to complain, he knew exactly what I was going to say, took the sandwich away, threw it into the trash and brought me a new sandwich that looked a little better, but still not like the picture.
I don't go to Arbys anymore.

[Jaelin227]

05:58 AM on 05/21/2012

Same with Taco Bell. Pitlins for stuffing of any kind.

[WickedPickle]

03:08 AM on 05/21/2012

... You hate pickles and because you hate them, you toss off eight slices but that won't help, the juice has soaked into the bun! One thing you hate more than pickles is it's tell-tell juice, so now your angry.. Your tired and your angry. Your tired, angry and STILL hungry because you can't eat a pickle juiced bun so you know you have to go back there and demand another burger WITHOUT pickles AND free (or not, like many people do). But your not just any people, so you go back and they tell you that they will send you a free coupon in the mail but if you want another one you will have to pay for it.. You're still angry but what's a buck? So you order again and as you pass him the dollar, he does not pass you the burger.. What's up? "That'll be a dollar EIGHT cents".. But your commercial said a dollar and your actor even received 2¢ back for chrissakes! He tells you to look at the disclaimer at the bottom of said commercial while he bobbles his open hand in your face.. You dig and pass a dime he gives back 2¢ and your on your way but somehow your not as hungry as you were earlier.. EIGHT weeks later you receive your free coupon and sure enough, at the bottom it states "+tax"..

[anitafeeney]

03:48 AM on 05/21/2012

i so know what you are saying faved your comment

[Jaelin227]

06:00 AM on 05/21/2012

You really like pickles, don't you?